Maple & Purple Heart Chisel Mallet

Here is my second attempt at a chisel mallet. My first one was solid maple and I’m currently using it in my shop pretty exclusively as a chisel mallet but if other things need a little “persuading” I use it for that stuff too. My reasoning behind putting purple heart around the head of each side of the mallet was for added weight and hardness but I have a question for any of you more experienced lumberjocks, will the purpleheart stand up being beat on a chisel handle without splintering off. I glued it up using titebond III and clamped for at least 12 hours. This is intended to be a Christmas gift for my brother. He doesn’t have a woodshop yet but as soon as they begin building that’s the first thing he’s going to build. So let me know what ya’ll think about the durability of the purpleheart. My solid maple hammer has stood up well under some very hard blows when I was cleaning out some mortises on whiteoak, so I was hoping the purpleheart would too.

Thanks for looking.

oh and I’m going to try and put an extra pic of the hammer here.

incidentally, the maple used for this hammer is reclaimed from an old maple bed frame that was being thrown away. I got about 15 full bend frames that were being thrown out from the women’s dorm of the university where I work in Plant Services. It’s a great place to work because I’m always getting first access to all kinds of wood. I just LOVE wood!

-- "Repetition is a leading cause of carelessness, and carelessness usually leads to injury"

While PH is plenty hard, I found it a little brittle. I’ve only purchased about 10BF and it was all from the same place, so I can only speak from a limited sample of it. I used it as a letter opener and it held a sharp edge. I’m curious as well, hope someone will chime in with a bit more knowledge. Need a mallet myself.

I’d be curious to see how this holds up too. It does look beautiful and made well. But I’ve found PH to be brittle too, and believe that the corners will soon be on the floor. But, it depends on what the user is using it for I guess. Maybe it’s a show piece? Good job at any rate.

A few months back my front wheel drive car threw a bearing. They are of course pressed in. With the lack of any real tools to get the old bearing outI grabbed a scrap piece of PurpleHeart, cut it to the proper width. It was approx. 10” x 1 3/4”. Lined it up and hit with a 3 lb mallet, it successfullydrove out the bearing. To my surprize the purpleheart had very slight compressionmarks from the mallet but that was it, the wood sustained some pretty seriousblows from a three lb mallet.

We use loads of the wood, I love it! It is tough enough that Alva Hardwoods down in FLA [my sons used to work for them] sells it to truckers for floorboards in the trailers. PurpleHeart can be a bit brittle on the endgrain, thus we always protect the edges of a board. I can’t reallytell if you have or not, but I’d round over the edges of the mallet. With that done your malletshould last for years to come. That is if you dare to use such a beautiful tool!

-- - Michael "Over 300000 species of trees, yet we take the credit for their beauty..."

The problem is that if you round over the ends you loose some of the face that you are hitting with, and you could end up reflecting off the round edge on accident. Maybe if the tool was made with the face grain exposed it would be good, but the entire face of the mallet is end grain and in my opinion will splinter. But then again, how hard are you going to be swinging it?

thanks for all the kind words ya’ll. i did put a slight chamfer on the edges of each face in order to protect the edges from splintering but i suppose only time will tell. if it does hold up well then i’ll let ya’ll know after the new year when it has seen some use.

-- "Repetition is a leading cause of carelessness, and carelessness usually leads to injury"

I love the design and workmanship on this nicest mallet I have ever seen.I was turning some pens last week and also found purpleheart to be very brittle shearing apart when being drilled and turned however I made a few will post pics later well done anyway sir god bless your friend in Scotland Alistair

Personally I would use this to hang up for looks in my house before I used it. It is way to nice looking to use it!! Thank you for sharing. You also just gave me an idea on a fun project for myself. Thanks

-- Allison, Northeastern Ca. Remember, Amateurs built the Ark. Professionals built the Titanic!